Instead of buying cds, I have been getting BD concerts instead because they don't cost much more and you get to see them live. I bought over ten of them for the holidays and want to make it a habit each month.

...I think people feel the convenience of streaming movies, just like downloading music, far outweighs the need/desire to have the higher definition hard copy on hand at any time...

This is exactly what has me wondering if Blu-ray is effectively dead.

B&M rental is definitely dead. I don't know how Netflix's physical rental system is doing. Maybe I'm just an oddball, but I don't repeatedly watch movies. I like to see something new each time. I would hate to be in a position where I have to buy anything I want to watch in full HD.

_________________________
Fred

-------Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!

I would hate to be in a position where I have to buy anything I want to watch in full HD.

But you have to buy or rent (and some rentals are actually limited in sound anyway) a physical disc in order to get full HD. 1080p with HD 5.1 or 7.1 sound without artifacts or significant compression (even if they SAY it is HD) is still disc based, or some massive torrent download. Streaming still doesn't offer that. Too much bandwidth reuirement today.

But you are right, like Jakewash posted too, a lot of people are about convenience not quality. I remember with MP3s first came out, people thought that a super compressed digital version of a compressed disc version (CD) of an analog recording, and college kids LOVED sharing them around. It was about being cool, trendy, and convenient. Same with streaming at its current level.

MP3s have come a long way, and streaming will get there eventually too. Just years away due to compression and bandwidth limits, but that won't stop people from saying that streaming is the best and blu-ray is dead. Not just you... Some industry "experts" keep writing articles about it too and these same arguments are given to them as feedback as well.

With all of that, if you love streaming, are willing to overlook the shortcomings, and never buy movies any more, then more power to you. Who am I to take that away? I just want the best image and picture and am willing to pay $15-$20 on a disc and not only have full 1080p 100% of the time with DTS-MA soundtracks that are never streamed. So I will stick with discs.

What I think would solve many streaming issues would be to not stream at all but download the movie at full HD quality ahead of time then play from your PVR hard disk. The folder it downloads to would be on a constant watch and anything older than 24hrs is deleted, not much different than your VOD account as they are right now, only it is done in your house and not on the cable companies mainframe.

My sister just asked me the other day..."Our DVD player just died. Should we get a Blu-Ray player? Will that still play our DVDs?"

She has a 60" LED TV and using DVDs. Yuck.

Ignorance is abound out there amongst the common population.

I like the idea of being able to download something at higher than streaming quality (legally of course), but to equal the quality of a new movie on Blu-Ray, you would need to download a minimum of 30-35GB per movie with just one audio track and no extra features. Sure, that is HD audio, but isn't that part of the idea.

Maybe start downloading and after enough of it buffers you could start (like streaming does now), but let a gig or so come down before starting instead of 50 MB for current streaming.

Most people I've talked to haven't bought a blu-ray player yet. And a lot of them are still waiting for their CRT TV to go out before replacing it.

Now that's interesting. I find the opposite. Even my cheap assed ex now has a flat panel.

I've searched, but can't find any estimates of how many CRTs are still out there. Interestingly, India just crossed the 50% threshold in flat panel vs crt shipments last year.

Probably depends on how affluent the people are you associate with. Most people I associate with are in the lower category. Work, church, etc. most also think you have to have a DVD player to play DVDs. Some don't even know what a blu-ray is. Some are still only or mostly playing VHS tapes. My retired sister falls into this category. I gave her an LCD panel about 4 years ago. These same people also have trouble trying to switch from cable/antenna to DVD and back again it seems.

Also, what's interesting, even some of the more influential fall onto this same category, now that I think about it. It just depends on how tech savvy they are. I just don't have many tech savvy friends.